US embassy cable - 03HARARE1866

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HARARE 001866 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR AF FOR A/S KANSTEINER AND PDAS SNYDER; AF/S FOR 
DELISI AND RAYNOR; AF/PDPA FOR DALTON, MITCHELL AND SIMS 
NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER 
LONDON FOR GURNEY 
PARIS FOR NEARY 
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER 
GUATEMALA CITY FOR DCM WHARTON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, KPAO, KMDR, ZI, Media and Communications 
SUBJECT: GOVERNMENT RAIDS AND CLOSES ONLY INDEPENDENT DAILY 
NEWSPAPER 
 
REF: HARARE 1852 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. NOT FOR INTERNET POSTING. 
PROTECT ACCORDINGLY. 
 
1.   (SBU)  Summary: Friday night, September 12, police 
     units raided the offices and printing press of the largest 
     circulation daily newspaper in Zimbabwe, The Daily News 
     (TDN), forcing production to cease.  Thursday's Supreme 
     Court ruling declared the paper's operations "illegal" 
     under the Access to Information and Privacy Protection Act 
     (AIPPA) (reftel).  According to TDN eyewitnesses, raiding 
     authorities presented no warrant or court order during the 
     raid. Senior TDN executives advise that the paper will seek 
     resumption of operations by registering as required by the 
     Supreme Court ruling.  They will then resume their 
     challenge of AIPPA on constitutional grounds.  At this 
     juncture, it is impossible to divine when and if TDN will 
     resume publication.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2.   (U) Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper, "The 
     Daily News," has failed to appear on the streets since 
     September 13 following the closure of its offices and 
     printing press last Friday, September 12, by paramilitary 
     police, a day after the Supreme Court ruled that TDN was 
     operating illegally.  The newspaper's Sunday edition, "The 
     Daily News on Sunday," was also prevented from publishing 
     September 14.  Since "The Daily News" began publishing in 
     1999 the "Daily News" has never failed to go to print, even 
     when it suffered a January 2001 firebomb attack that 
     destroyed its printing press.  The last time a newspaper 
     was banned in the country was nearly 40 years ago when the 
     white minority Rhodesian government outlawed an African 
     nationalist newspaper, also called the "Daily News." 
 
3.   (U)  The closure of "The Daily News" and its sister 
     weekly "The Daily News on Sunday" came after the publishers 
     of the two titles, Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), 
     lost a court battle in which it challenged the 
     constitutionality of the requirement that they register 
     under Section 66 of the controversial AIPPA, signed by 
     Robert Mugabe after last year's disputed presidential 
     election.  The AIPPA requires news organizations to 
     register with the Media and Information Commission (MIC). 
     The "Daily News" has been operating without a license in 
     defiance of the law passed last year.  Instead of 
     registering, ANZ challenged some sections of the AIPPA in 
     the Supreme Court.  In its ruling, the Supreme Court ruled 
     that ANZ should have complied with the law by registering 
     to operate a newspaper before launching its challenge. 
     Under the terms of the AIPPA, the MIC chairman, former 
     journalism lecturer Dr. Tafaona Mahoso, could fine the ANZ, 
     jail its officers, or confiscate its equipment. 
 
4.   (SBU) Nkomo was to have appeared in magistrate's court 
     the afternoon of September 15, but according to TDN 
     representatives, the police failed to present charges. 
     Gugulethu Moyo, ANZ's counsel, said that she attempted to 
     register the TDN with the MIC the morning of September 15. 
     The MIC accepted the application, and in response to Moyo's 
     request to be allowed back into TDN offices said that they 
     "would consider it soon."  MIC Chairman Mahoso suggested in 
     the press that a quick and automatic re-opening of the 
     closed newspapers may prove elusive.  "Arriving at the 
     doorsteps does not mean that they will be registered.  It 
     was them who went to court to report their own crime and 
     not us," Dr. Mahoso is quoted in the government-controlled 
     press as saying, adding that "scrutinizing the application 
     was a process that may take some time."  Meanwhile, 
     according to Moyo, TDN is preparing an urgent application 
     to have the closure declared illegal. 
 
5.   (U)  Since it was founded three years ago, the paper 
     has faced constant harassment by authorities.  Its former 
     editor-in-chief, Geoffrey Nyarota, and several staff 
     members have been arrested on various charges under the 
     AIPPA and some staff have been beaten by pro-government 
     supporters.  Dozens of TDN reporters have been denied 
     accreditation with the MIC. 
 
6.   (U)  The Media Institute of Southern Africa-Zimbabwe 
     (MISA-Zimbabwe) has condemned the closure of "The Daily 
     News" and "The Daily News on Sunday", describing it as an 
     assault on the constitutional right of freedom of 
     expression and a denial of media diversity in Zimbabwe. 
     "The sudden closure of `The Daily News' robs the country of 
     one of the few alternative voices in an increasingly 
     restricted space where Zimbabweans can freely express 
     themselves," MISA-Zimbabwe said in statement released in 
     Harare on September 13. 
 
7.   (SBU)  COMMENT:  The closure of TDN could be a simple 
     case of the government displaying its power before allowing 
     TDZ to resume publication after registering with the MIC. 
     Or these actions could be part of Information Minister 
     Jonathan Moyo's personal vendetta against the lone daily 
     independent newspaper (the ANZ executives' privately 
     expressed view).  In either case, registration could take a 
     long time, and the paper would be prevented from publishing 
     in the meantime.  Discussions with many of the day-to-day 
     staff have revealed that they have taken on gallows humor, 
     referring to themselves as ex-editors of former The Daily 
     News.  They feel that the government has decided to stop 
     tolerating an independent critical voice and will prosecute 
     the matter to the full extent of the law.  The case 
     suggests that, notwithstanding its ongoing efforts to 
     present a more moderate face to domestic opposition and the 
     international community, the government will continue to 
     employ a wide array of tools to punish and to stifle its 
     critics. END COMMENT 
 
 
SULLIVAN